Kamiak Butte and Substrate Quartzite

Kamiak Butte is very unique when it comes to its creation. According to (Lenssen, Ice Age Flood Explorer), Kamiak Butte is, “made up of mostly two types of rock: quartzite, possibly from around the time of the Cambrian era, and a mix of undivided agrilite, siltite and phyllite.” (Lenssen, Ice Age Flood Explorer).  When discussing the Columbia River Flood basalts and Kamiak Butte, the Butte stands tall above where lava flows occurred. In a field trip guide from the WSU geology department, Dr. Peters describes, “After becoming compacted and cemented to form sandstone, the rocks remained buried. At a later date they underwent relatively mild metamorphism, at low temperatures and pressures, becoming quartzite” (Peters, 9). Dr. Peters also describes how the Butte was a mountain before the basalts (Peters, 9).  As the Butte was being pushed up above other mountainous structures, quartzite emerged above the lava flows of the flood basalts. As this happened, the quartzite of Kamiak Butte was already at a higher elevation than how high the flood basalts were covering. 

Basalts are layered geologic structures and because of Kamiak Butte’s quartzite structure, there was resilience towards further erosion, which is the reason to its uplifting, standing above the flood basalts. A similar structure in the Palouse to Kamiak Butte is Steptoe Butte. Both are similar in that the way they were created, with quartzite being the main rock type. Kamiak Butte is one of the few structures from this geologic event that was uplifted and thus not overtaken by basalt, but still made of quartzite created long before flood basalts were even deposited.